‘Optics’ Can Blur Your Vision

Last fall, President Joe Biden declared the pandemic “over.” Even though he personally suffered two coronavirus infections in the weeks prior, it gave the appearance—“optics” as politicians say—of progress. Mid-term elections were approaching and pandemic response remained an issue.

Apart from any effects at the polls, it gave people an excuse to stop trying to prevent infections. At the time, about 2,500 people died each week due to COVID-19 infections. In the week ending March 27, that number was 2,060. In the first six months the pandemic was “over,” it killed the equivalent of the whole population of Oak Park, Illinois. Optics likely prevented a clear view of reality.

Now the White House says it will shut down its COVID Response Team.

More people will use this as an excuse to ignore the still-climbing death toll, ongoing long-COVID effects disrupting lives, and new pushes by executives to push people back into the confined spaces of offices.

Meanwhile medical experts still try to analyze ongoing threats. The Lancet (the British medical journal) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine both published articles about how myasthenia gravis patients with COVID were more likely to need to be admitted to the hospital and require ICU care. COVID’s effect on people who need immunity-suppressing drugs, such as those with transplanted organs, rheumatoid arthritis and muscular sclerosis is still being studied. Medicine seems to think killing the equivalent of a village every six months is bad.

Despite this, the optically challenged may overlook that members of the disbanded White House coronavirus team will help form a new White House Pandemic Response Office. Maybe the message we should take from the White House change is to expect the roller coaster of infections surging and ebbing to continue, as it has throughout the COVID-19 years—this week deaths rose more than 20% in the U.S.

A member of the team that developed mRNA vaccines wrote an op-ed about how luck played a big part in developing a useful vaccine in less than a year. Other scientists warn that pandemics will likely be more common. Biden’s predecessor filled heads with falsehoods about coronavirus being no worse than “the flu.” A million deaths later, some still believe those falsehoods.

So here we are, thousands of deaths every week. Thousands more with exhaustion, “brain fog” and the other symptoms of Long COVID.

Yet the optics show safety and security.

They may need new glasses.

COVID-19 BY THE NUMBERS: In the U.S., 2,060 people died from a coronavirus infection during the week that ended March 27—an increase of more than 350 deaths from the week prior—per the CDC, with 133,521 new confirmed infections. The percentage of Americans who received an updated booster held steady at 16.4% of eligible people.

Amanda Schleede is founder and CEO of Attend Safe, which helps people to attend to life with sensible safety protocols. Visit Attend Safe online at AttendSafe.com.